[wahern]

It's rare that any single, isolated statement or action will rise to the level of illegal discrimination. Usually there's a pattern of behavior, and that pattern would provide context to prove any alleged implications in bringing up the affirmative action programs. You'd have to read the actual complaint. The journalist is only giving highlights that they feel are newsworthy, which may not strongly correlate to legal significance. However, mentioning the discussion of color is probably exceedingly important. The Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 made discrimination based on color explicitly illegal. Without that hook it might be more difficult to argue that Federal civil rights legislation applies to discrimination based on caste.